Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by GlenM on July 20, 2011 at 12:44

Invoking Godwin's Law purposefully doesn't work.

And its never been illegal to have Aboriginal parents and its never been illegal to be bought up by aboriginal parents.  The stolen generation was created by people who thought they could break the law with impunity because they thought they were doing the right thing. (similar to people who run red lights in my opinion)

Permalink Reply by Doddsy on July 21, 2011 at 20:14

George: The stolen generation was created by the Federal and State Government.

The federal and state government aren't similar to people who run red lights.

But they sure do have the potential to make streets safer for people.

Permalink Reply by GlenM on July 22, 2011 at 8:58

You are correct about who created the stolen generation but what they did was against the law at the time - just because a gov dept makes a policy doesn't mean the policy is legal. 

My point was that the people who created that policy thought they were doing the right thing by breaking the law just like cyclists that run red lights think they are doing the right thing by breaking the law.

Both are/were wrong.

Permalink Reply by GlenM on July 20, 2011 at 13:22

Doddsy your a bad bad man for mentioning Godwin's law.  

That led onto Formosa's Law then a couple of really really interesting sites on Fallacious arguments and the use of propaganda in arguments and I have work to do.

Permalink Reply by Brian Jenkins (BJ) on July 20, 2011 at 23:51

To me, THE basic rule of thumb is to both respect and watch out for other road users.  A major part of this is to obey the road rules.  However people have been deemed to be within the law, yet have still injured or killed other road users.  The laws don't explicitly state don't crash into other vehicles/people.

Couriers (bicycle and motorised) are part of our society.  Businesses and individuals want items delivered within time-frames.  To do this, ANY type of courier may break a road rule at times to get the job done.  Have a look around some time at the number of commercial vehicles on the road with the driver taking a call.  It might be you on the other end asking for help with that plumbing leak - do you check whether they're driving or not?  If an expected delivery is late, when you enquire do you say "OK whenever you can, just take care on the road, mate". 

I'm not a courier.  Personally I neither condone or condemn when Jake or Doddsy have broken a law without knowing the situation.  Some of Doddsy's ways of getting his job done seem pretty innovative and well-considered to me.  If we didn't have bicycle couriers in the CBDs, who knows what would replace them - still being subject to deadlines (pun intended).  Looking beyond just your own ends is what counts more.

 

Permalink Reply by GlenM on July 21, 2011 at 9:20

"The laws don't explicitly state don't crash into other vehicles/people." but they do say that dangerous driving (i.e. putting someone else at risk because of your actions) is illegal. If a crash occurs on the road that involves more than one vehicle someone has broken a law.

With the price of bluetooth headsets and handsfree headsets so cheap these days there is no reason why any driver should be breaking the law and answering a phone illegally while driving.

When I was filling out tenders 30 years ago we actually allowed realistic delivery times and delivered the tenders ourselves or used couriers that gave a realistic assessment of delivery times. I also think its totally unreasonable for any company to require such a short delivery time that it requires the courier to break the law and I also think its just as unreasonable for a courier company to promise such short delivery times that couriers are required to break the law to keep to those times.  Both of these attitudes show a disregard for the welfare of the courier companies employees and exhibit the "I want it NOW" attitude that seems to prevails in our society.

I would much rather be given a reasonable time for delivery and the courier stick to it than be given an unreasonable time for delivery and the courier break the law.

I'm also sure the Murdoch's would love to use an argument similar to yours "The people want the news so we should be allowed to break the law to give them what they want" 

 

Permalink Reply by Clive Palfrey on July 21, 2011 at 12:01

I wonder what companies actually use Bicycle Couriers in this electronic age hard to imagine that anything was needed 5 minutes ago.

Permalink Reply by GlenM on July 21, 2011 at 16:33

The need to have things 5 minutes ago is becoming prevalent in society.  My kids get upset if a web page takes longer than 10 secs to load or an email takes more than 30 secs to arrive at its destination or it takes longer than 4 or 5 days for something to arrive from overseas.

 

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 10
• 11
• 12
• Next ›
• Page